Christian J. Lambertsen, OSS officer who created early scuba device, dies at 93
February 21, 2011 0 CommentsDr. Christian J. Lambertsen served in the OSS during World War II. (Courtesy Of "National Navy Seal Museum - Courtesy Of "National Navy Seal Museum")
By T. Rees Shapiro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 18, 2011; 10:54 PM
Christian J. Lambertsen, who as a medical student in 1939 invented a revolutionary underwater breathing system used by the military in World War II and who later helped coin the popular acronym to describe his device and others like it - scuba - died of renal failure Feb. 11 at his home in Newtown Square, Pa. He was 93.
Dr. Lambertsen, who had a second home on Maryland's Eastern Shore, was a longtime professor at his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He was an expert on respiratory physiology and diving-related ailments.
His 1939 invention, the Lambertsen Amphibious Respirator Unit, or LARU, is considered a forerunner of the scuba ...
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